News Reporting With Malice Aforethought

October 14, 2013

A basic assumption about news media is that accurate, true and unbiased information is reported, but much too often the opposite is true. In fact, actual malice and total disregard for truth is the reality of much of today’s news reporting. As an educator, I strive to maintain both the integrity of my profession and the integrity of my Christian faith.

Minds have been entrusted to my care, and I facilitate students’ learning, providing the information and tools needed to succeed and become productive, intelligent citizens. Out of respect and goodwill, I will not serve my students a diet of false information; that is the integrity of my profession, and it is that very thing, integrity, that is absent in much of news media.

Journalists should be accountable to the public for their reporting of the news. True, accurate, fair and balanced reporting should be demanded by the American public. More often than not, information coming from the media is manipulated for the sole purpose of advancing a political agenda, and this strategy has proven to be very successful. Large portions of liberal journalism are prepared and served up daily.

The liberal media dishes out huge servings of lies, innuendo, distortions and bias that, to the undiscerning eye, looks like a healthy diet but has a combination of ingredients that compromise our thinking and increase our risk of mindlessness. We are told what to think and how to act; but even more egregious is the damage this unhealthy diet of liberal journalism manipulation has done to this country and its citizens. The idle minds of the masses have become the liberal media’s workshop, where they cook up and dish out the political agenda of their masters. Manipulating the opponent to get political advantage is nothing new, but the current democratic regime and the liberal media have taken it to greater heights. They’ve mastered a key propaganda technique: dehumanizing the enemy by name calling and labeling.

Anti-Tea Party bias is just one example of mass media using these lies and innuendo to advance political agendas and manipulate thinking. From the onset, the left wing media waged war on the Tea Party, demonizing it in an effort to destroy any chance of it becoming competition for the Democratic Party. Mayor Bloomberg and MSNBC falsely accused Tea Partiers of being the Times Square Bomber. We listened as the liberal media suggested that Gabrielle Gifford’s attack was caused by Conservatives or Tea Partiers. Heaven forbid we should make up our own minds about the Tea Party based on true, accurate and unbiased information.

During the 2008 and 2012 presidential races, Republican Sarah Palin was criticized for not having enough experience to be Vice President, while Democrat Barack…..Who? Barack Obama, a relative unknown with little experience and running for the highest office in the land, never received the same criticism. My conclusion from this: If you’re running for Vice President of the United States, much is required. If you’re running for President….not so much... all is fair and anything goes, as long as it demonizes a conservative and keeps them out of the White House.

The liberal media put us on a diet when it came to feeding us facts about the Benghazi incident. An obvious act of terrorism, but our local and national media coverage treated it in cavalier fashion. We now know (well, some of us) that the Obama administration misrepresented the facts of the Benghazi attack and that he refused to send a rescue mission. As the story unfolded before their eyes, journalists gave little or no coverage. After a few days, the story was completely dropped. Heaven forbid they should cast aspersions on Obama. Conservative Fox News was the lone voice in the wilderness, serving up the facts as they unfolded and staying with the story.

The effects of liberal media manipulation is by no means trivial. The liberal agenda is changing the face of America, and one of these not-so-glad mornings, we will awaken, look in the mirror, and see the face of the enemy; but there is yet time. We must hold journalists accountable and demand integrity in news reporting, true and balanced reporting. As I stand in the doorway greeting students, I recognize that I’m the gatekeeper of their minds, the transmitter of knowledge. As you consume your daily dose of news, remember: journalists are transmitters of information and American thought; hold them accountable.

Sherrie Marshall is a teacher of English, TV Production and Drama at the Broward County Public School System in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for the last 28 years. As a writer, she has authored two books. Her first book, Invisible Chains, addresses the Democratic Party’s stronghold on black voters and others who are misinformed, and explains that the “invisible chains had to fall from her first.” Her second book, One Heartbeat Away is a collection of dramatic poetry. Born a Democrat “by default” in the small town of Lake Wales, Florida, she explains that she “saw the light” in 1996 and was reborn a Republican.